Evil Geniuses StarCraft 2 Master's Cup Tournament Recap

This weekend G4TV.com and pro gaming team Evil Geniuses teamed up to stream their final StarCraft 2 Master's Cup series of the year. It all started last month with a 380 player bracket, and this past weekend's events finally crowned a winner out of the 16 remaining players in the best-of-five single elimination tournament. If you weren't able to catch the stream itself, the videos, all cast by Marcus "djWHEAT" Graham and Sean "Day9" Plott, will be available soon over at EG's team website.
The weekend was filled with some great games and an even greater number of upsets from some of the most well-known North American StarCraft 2 ladder players including Kevin "ROOT.qxc" Riley, Geoff "EG.iNControL" Robinson, Bryce "EG.Machine" Bates, Taylor "LG.PainUser" Parsons, and more. Plus, as the tournament was open for new players to test their skills as well, some rising stars got their time to shine including Sung Min "NOVA.stalife" Park who made it all the way to the grand finals and Jordan "VT|bLuR" Cue who made it to the consolation finals vs. Paul-David "ROOT.SLush" Page.

The grand finals came down to ROOT.qxc playing Terran vs. NOVA.stalife also playing Terran. Up until this series qxc had been undefeated all weekend, going 9-0 convincingly against his other opponents. In the first game, stalife tried an early push which failed. In turn, qxc was able to contain stalife into his own base, making him unable to expand, and force the win. The third match finally handed qxc his first loss of the entire tournament. The final matches showed off qxc's impeccable micro and multitasking abilities, using several medivac drops to overcome stalife 3-1 in the series.

After he was announced as the winner of the Master's Cup, qxc had to face off against the powerhouse Greg "EG.IdrA" Fields for the chance at a MSI GT660 Notebook. IdrA is considered one of the best North American StarCraft 2 players in the world, which is why EG chose to have him be the final boss of the tournament, and they chose well.

The first game qxc tried a bunker rush strategy which failed. IdrA was able to hold it off and come back to win. The second game qxc tried to utilize his micro skills with a banshee and again, IdrA was able to hold it off and counter attack for the win. In the third game, qxc lost a ton of units to roaches while he was trying to expand and it ultimately cost him the game and the chance at the laptop. IdrA posted on his twitter account after the games saying, "EG's Masters Cup always makes me feel kind of dirty, playing for the sole purpose of preventing someone from getting an awesome laptop."

Check out the video of the final matches between qxc and IdrA below.

Did you get a chance to tune into the stream of EG's Master's Cup Series Finals this weekend? I noticed that some people watching had never seen competitive StarCraft 2 matches before. Who were your favorite players to watch and what did you think of the overall event?

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